warhammer40kfandomcom-20200222-history
Warsmith
during the Horus Heresy.]] Warsmith was an honorary rank held by the senior Space Marine Captains who commanded the Grand Battalions of the Iron Warriors Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras in the late-30th and early 31st Millennia. After the Horus Heresy, the title would later be used by the Chaos Lords who commanded each of the Iron Warriors' myriad warbands of Heretic Astartes. At the time of the Horus Heresy, the IVth Legion had an added layer of organisation known as a "Grand Battalion," which contained several units called "Grand Companies" and was commanded by an officer with the rank of Warsmith. The rank was granted for exceptional skill and valour in directing the IVth Legion's campaigns, and made its bearer the commanding officer of several of the Iron Warriors' companies, which were combined into the larger unit known as a "Grand Battalion." During the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V there were at least twelve Grand Battalions in the IVth Legion, although with the widespread deployment of many Iron Warriors garrison forces in that era, it is impossible to be sure of the exact size of the Legion. The Iron Warriors Traitor Legion of the late 41st Millennium is organised into a number of large warbands still known as Grand Companies, each commanded by a Chaos Lord who bears the title of Warsmith. Originally, each Grand Company would have been similar in size and organisation, totaling approximately a thousand Space Marines, but now they vary in size enormously after ten millennia of battle and losses. The Warsmiths themselves are all extremely gifted in combat engineering, many maintaining a large contingent of slave-mechanicians to perform the more menial work. It is uncertain how many Grand Companies there are at any given time in the present era. History During the Great Crusade era, within the Iron Warriors Legion, the Primarch Perturabo's word was law. To him there was never any differences between Terran and Olympian Astartes within the IVth Legion; all were his Iron Warriors, grist for the bloody mill of war. Although for many solar decades the IVth Legion had been rigidly dogmatic in its adherence to the patterns set out for the nascent Legion at the start of the Great Crusade, Perturabo's intervention was to write significant and far-ranging changes upon his Legion, but not one that by any means changed it beyond all recognition from what had gone before. It is clear that Perturabo saw his Legion not as a collective of individual members but as a cohesive and unified whole. An army whose task was to overwhelm their foes by the most efficient and direct methods possible, destroy that enemy's ability to resist and, where needed, to exterminate them utterly. More perhaps than any Primarch save Angron, it has been said that no Primarch regarded his own Legionaries with so little respect as Perturabo; to him they were a resource to be spent to achieve victory, a resource which did have undeniable value, but a resource to be expended never-the-less. While honourifics and commendations in general meant little to the Iron Warriors at an individual level, technological skill and the ability to wage warfare in the manner which Perturabo favoured was recognised and rewarded. This was most evident in the rank of Warsmith within the Legion. In Perturabo's Legion, the title of Warsmith grew to largely replace that of Praetor and Lord Commander which were common in the other Legions, and it carried with it much of the role of a traditional Olympian warlord as well as an embodiment of the Iron Warriors' strategic doctrines. A Warsmith was -- as perhaps the title implies -- required to fashion and mould a battlefield to their will, not simply to excel at fighting or indeed leading those who fought. They were expected to have a complete mastery of logistics, siegecraft, ordnance and the cerebral comprehension of war; from planning campaigns of planetary conquest to the rapid calculation of tactical fire zones in a shattered urban ruin. Unlike those of the lower ranks who fought at their command, a Warsmith was an individual in whose hands a battle rested, and the success or failure of the forces under their command was theirs to carry, to the good or ill of their own fate -- Perturabo being renowned as unforgiving of failure. This system made the Warsmiths a grim, self-possessed, often paranoid and highly independent class of savant-warlords within the IVth Legion. It winnowed the weak and the ill-fortuned from their number and left those who remained as the most adept, ruthless and intelligent the Iron Warriors Legion had to offer. The ranks of the Warsmiths, which fluctuated in number and seniority between them, was not clearly defined, leading to rivalries and feuds between them. The majority of Warsmiths commanded Grand Battalions of their own, making up the core of the Legion's strategic command structure, while others had command of specific strategic formations such as the Stor-Bezashk, important garrison posts and splinter expeditionary fleets, or held satrapies of Armoury Worlds and other detached commands. Three Warsmiths, granted particular favour by Perturabo, were exalted to a further rank, that of Triarch. These three senior Warsmiths formed the Trident, who nominally served as their Primarch's council of advisors, but more commonly served to convey his will and direct orders to those below them. Such proximity to the IV Legion's increasingly dark-hearted master, in particularly in later years, is reputed to have held many dangers of its own. Notable Warsmiths *'Warsmith Forrix, "The Breaker" (KIA)' - Forrix, known as "The Breaker," was an Iron Warriors Warsmith, First Captain of the 1st Grand Battalion and a member of Perturabo's inner circle of advisors known as the Trident. He was a formidable warrior and Imperial hero during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. It was Warsmith Forrix's primary responsibility for planning the Iron Warriors' attack on the marooned Imperial Fists' Retribution Fleet during the Battle of Phall. At the conclusion of the Horus Heresy, it would be Forrix who led the retreat of the Iron Warriors Legion following their disastrous defeat at the Battle of Terra. Ten millennia later, Forrix had become disillusioned and jaded from the constant fighting of the Long War and was deemed an unworthy successor to the Iron Warrior Chaos Lord Barban Falk, "The Warsmith". Forrix met his ultimate fate while fighting in the 13th Black Crusade during the siege of Hydra Cordatus, where he was killed by an Imperial ''Warhound''-class Titan. *'Warsmith Berrosus' (KIA) '- Berrosus was an Iron Warriors Warsmith of the 2nd Grand Battalion. During the Battle of Phall he had the misfortune of bringing ill-favoured news to Perturabo, whose volatile moods had steadily worsened since the slaughters of Istvaan V. He had hoped his position as a Warsmith would keep him from harm, but it was to be a fool's hope, for Perturabo's rages fell on high kings and holy fools alike. On the orders of his Primarch, Berossus was eventually encased within the shell of a Chaos Dreadnought to be tormented across the centuries. In the late 41st Millennium, on the Daemon World of Medrengard, Berrosus and his fellow Warsmith Toramino were angered over Warsmith Honsou's refusal to share the Imperial Fists gene-seed that was stolen from Hydra Cordatus during the 13th Black Crusade, and so declared war against him. The aggressive Berrosus had his Grand Company lay siege to Honsou's citadel, and though losses proved high (one thousand Astartes) he succeeded in breaching the citadel's walls. Facing Honsou in close-combat, Berrosus nearly killed him with a siege drill. Unfortunately, victory was torn from his grasp when Honsou's life was saved by his daemonic life-ward Onyx, who managed to breech Berrosus' Dreadnought carapace. Honsou then reached inside the Dreadnought shell and ripped out its Mind Impulse Unit and pulped Berrosus' head before all to see. Berrosus' warband then defected to the service of Honsou shortly thereafter. during the latter years of the Great Crusade.]] *'Warsmith Barabas Dantioch - Warsmith Barabas Dantioch once commanded the 51st Expeditionary Fleet of the Iron Warriors Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. He was the favoured son of Perturabo due to his supreme tactical acumen and skill at building formidable fortifications. He had been laid low during a massive Hrud infestation on the world of Gholghis. Dantioch had been left prematurely aged and crippled by the attack of the xenos. After the incident, he chose to wear no helmet, for his face and skull were enclosed within an iron mask he had crafted. The faceplate was a work of brutal beauty, an interpretation of the IVth Legion’s own badge, the very same iron mask symbol that adorned his shoulder. It was whispered that Dantioch had worn the mask immediately after he pulled it glowing from the forge, the better to hammer it into shape around his shaven skull. He then plunged head and iron mask alike into ice water, fixing the beaten metal in place forever around his equally grim features. Dantioch left the 51st Expeditionary Fleet to garrison the world of Lesser Damantyne, becoming the planner and architect of the superbly fortified Schadenhold fortress. After the triple disasters of Gholghis, Stratopolae and Krak Fiorina, the name of Dantioch and his legacy was utterly expunged; his name a byword for failure on an epic scale. During the many months the small Iron Warriors detachment had garrisoned the planet, they heard disturbing rumours of the galaxy being conquered by the forces of the Warmaster Horus. Dantioch suspected that the bulk of the IVth Legion had willingly joined the Warmaster's cause. When Warsmith Krendl arrived at Lesser Damantyne with the 51st Expeditionary Fleet, he came to the Schadenhold with new orders for the Iron Warriors garrison. They were ordered by their Primarch to prepare for the Traitors' offensive against Terra. Lesser Damantyne would be used as a resupply point for Horus' forces. Dantioch refused to acquiesce to his Primarch's orders for the Iron Warriors on Lesser Damantyne remained Loyalists and would not share in their traitorous brethren's damnation. Krendl vowed to destroy Dantioch's beloved fortress in the name of Horus. Dantioch commanded his meagre forces against the entire might of the 51st Expeditionary Fleet and the 14th Grand Company of the Iron Warriors for 366 standard days, until the Traitors deployed an ''Imperator''-class Titan to destroy the Schadenhold. Just before the fortress fell, Dantioch and the surviving Loyalist Iron Warriors teleported aboard the Traitor's flagship and commandeered it. Dantioch then set course towards Terra with the aim of helping to fortify and defend the Emperor's Imperial Palace against the forces of the Traitor Legions. Dantioch's ultimate fate remains unrecorded in Imperial records at this time. Dantioch eventually entered the employ of Roboute Guilliman, who employed the Warsmith to decipher the secrets of the Pharos beacon of Sotha. *'Warsmith Kroeger (Deceased)' - Kroeger was an Iron Warriors Warsmith of the 23rd Grand Battalion and a member of Perturabo's inner circle of advisors known as the Trident during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. Originally, he served as a simple line warrior; a plain-speaking, bloody-handed brawler who excelled at assault actions. During the campaign against the Cadmean Citadel upon the Imperial Fists-controlled world of Hydra Cordatus, by the direct command of his Warsmith, he spearheaded an ill-advised assault against the formidable fortress. He was the lone survivor of the disastrous assault and was grievously wounded by the superior numbers of Imperial Fists Legionaries, and was only saved by the timely intervention of Perturabo and his Iron Circle of robotic praetorians. Recognising the warrior's raw talent and lack of ambition for glory's sake, Perturabo made Kroeger the new Warsmith of the 23rd Grand Battalion and a member of his inner circle of advisors known as the Trident. Ten millennia later, Kroeger would meet his ultimate fate, once again, upon the world of Hydra Crodatus during the 13th Black Crusade. By this time, Kroeger had given into his violent tendencies and had become a borderline berserker, though he was unlike the blood-crazed fiends of the World Eaters, as he seemed able to control his fury. He was killed during this campaign; his own Power Armour (possessed by a Lesser Daemon) decided to "bond" with a new owner, a former Imperial Guard Captain named Larana Utorian, who was Kroeger's personal slave. She donned her former master's armour and became fully possessed by the daemonic entity and subsequently killed Kroeger. *'Warsmith Harkor (KIA)' - Harkor was a former Iron Warriors Warsmith of the 23rd Grand Battalion and a member of Perturabo's inner circle of advisors known as the Trident during the Great Crusade and the opening days of the Horus Heresy. Warsmith Harkor was an Olympian of the old ways, a warrior who knew the value of occasionally strengthening the mettle of his subordinates by plunging them into the fire and beating them upon the anvil of war. During the campaign against the Iron Warriors' hated rivals upon the Imperial Fists-controlled world of Hydra Cordatus during the Horus Heresy, Harkor overstepped his authority and ordered an escalade against his Primarch's orders. Though the Iron Warriors were victorious, Perturabo was furious with Harkor. Since Istvaan V, Perturabo had become a giant of terrible rages and spontaneous violence, and Harkor had gambled that his humbling of Dorn's sons would quench that molten anger. He was wrong, as the Primarch formally rebuked him for countermanding his direct orders and devising stratagems of his own. Perturabo disapproved of having his warriors' lives wasted while Harkor watched from the relative safety of a gun battery. The Lord of Iron stripped the former Triarch of his armour and all rank. He was made a simple line warrior of the fighting ranks within the 23rd Grand Battalion. A lone surviving warrior of Harkor's ill-advised assault named Kroeger was chosen by the Primarch to become the new Warsmith of the 23rd Grand Battalion and the third blade of his Trident. Following this series of events, however, Harkor managed to convince the newly promoted Warsmith Kroeger to promote him to his personal lieutenant and adviser. Later, in a fit of rage, Harkor was brutally killed by Warsmith Kroeger, ending his brief re-entry into the spotlight. *'Warsmith Soltarn Vull Bronn, "The Stonewrought"' - Vull Bronn, known as "The Stonewrought," was a warrior of the 45th Grand Battalion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, whose understanding of stone was such that some whispered it spoke to him, confiding its secrets and opening up its geological wonders to the touch of his entrenching tool. Perturabo, ever quick to recognise raw talent, favoured Vull Bronn as an adviser, despite the inferiority of his rank next to the three exalted Warsmiths of the Trident who normally attended upon him. *'Warmsith Barban Falk, "The Warsmith"' - Barban Falk was a Warsmith of the Iron Warriors 235th Grand Battalion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy and later became a member of Perturabo's inner circle of advisors known as the Trident. During the Horus Heresy, Falk and his fellow Iron Warriors undertook a mutual quest with their brother Legion, the Emperor's Children, into the Eye of Terror to discover the lost Chaos artefact known as the Angel Exterminatus. Upon the Eldar Crone World of Amon ny-shak Kaelis, Falk was contacted by a mysterious daemonic entity which enabled him to utilise the Warp entity's formidable power to command the Iron Warriors under his command. After escaping from the Eldar world, he no longer referred to himself as Barban Falk, and forever after was known simply as "The Warsmith." Millennia later in 999.M41, The Warsmith, now a formidable Chaos Lord, led a large Iron Warriors warband during the 13th Black Crusade to the Imperial world of Hydra Cordatus. The lone Imperial citadel they assaulted secretly housed a large cryo-storage unit containing samples of the Imperial Fists Chapter's gene-seed. The Warsmith, having greatly pleased the Chaos Gods through his victory, was granted his final apotheosis into a daemon and departed for the Eye of Terror. Before his final ascension as a new Daemon Prince, he gave command of his warband to his chosen champion Honsou, who would take the stolen Imperial Fists gene-seed back to the Iron Warriors' Daemon World of Medrengard within the Eye. After the Forces of Chaos withdrew from Hydra Cordatus, they bombarded the remains of the citadel to dust, leaving only a single survivor to bring word of the disaster to the Imperium. of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion.]] *'Warsmith Honsou, "The Half-Breed"'- Honsou, known as the "Half-Breed," was the leading Iron Warriors Warsmith at the end of the 41st Millennium. He first came to prominence during the Iron Warriors' assault on the Adeptus Mechanicus fortress on the world of Hydra Cordatus that housed a large cryo-storage unit containing samples of the Imperial Fists Chapter's gene-seed. At this point, Honsou was the captain of one-third of Barban Falk´s Grand Company. Honsou had managed to claw his way to that position despite heavy prejudice from other Iron Warriors for being a "half-breed"; when he had first been transformed into a Chaos Space Marine in the years after the Horus Heresy, Honsou's gene-seed had been "tainted" through the use of captured genetic material from the hated Imperial Fists, the Iron Warriors' most hated and ancient foe. Despite his fellows' prejudice, his abilities and tenaciousness helped him succeed in capturing the gene-seed held in stasis on Hydra Cordatus. With this victory, Honsou's Warsmith successfully ascended to daemonhood and appointed Honsou (the only surviving captain) as his successor. The newly appointed Warsmith Honsou returned to the Iron Warriors' Daemon World of Medrengard in triumph but snubbed two of his fellow Warsmiths when he decided to renege on their agreed upon promise of sharing the gene-seed captured at Hydra Cordatus so that all the Iron Warriors Grand Companies could create new Astartes. This decision lead to a civil war within the Iron Warriors' ranks. The two rival Warsmiths and their Grand Companies laid siege to Honsou's citadel of Khalan-Ghol and eventually breached it. Honsou was nearly killed by the Warsmith Berrosus but was saved by his life-ward and killed the Dreadnought Warsmith. Yet, the war continued and eventually most of Honsou's forces had been smashed by other Warsmiths seeking to claim the unspoiled gene-seed and their armies in their internecine warring that spread across Medrengard. Honsou eventually found himself within the Maelstrom on the world of New Badab during the Skull Harvest, an annual event hosted by the despicable Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart. Rival Chaos Lords brought their warbands to New Badab and fought one another during the Skull Harvest. When a Chaos Lord was slain in the Harvest, the victor acquired their opponent's warband. Honsou took the opportunity to take part in the Harvest. Eventually he emerged on top as the victor, and his army of Chaos Space Marines swelled into the tens of thousands. With his army assembled, Honsou was finally ready to unleash his audacious plan for revenge against Captain Uriel Ventris and the hated Ultramarines by completely destroying the Realm of Ultramar. He would enact this plan with the help of the Daemon Prince M'kar the Reborn, who had once been Maloq Kartho, a Dark Apostle of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion during the Horus Heresy. But ultimately, Honsou's plans to invade Ultramar were thwarted and the Iron Warriors were routed back to Medrengard while M'kar was banished to the Warp. *'Warsmith Andraaz (KIA)' - Warsmith Andraaz was an Iron Warriors Warsmith of the 3rd Grand Company. Following the Traitor Legions' flight to the Eye of Terror at the end of the Horus Heresy, he eventually rose in favour to command the Fortress World of Castellax, a former Imperial Mining World, whose population was enslaved in order to provide manual labour to produce materials for the Daemon World of Medrengard. Generations of slaves were born and died in the hellish conditions during their enforced enslavement to produce the necessary supplies that were sent as tithes to the Iron Warriors' homeworld within the Eye. The centuries-long rule of the planet was maintained by only a small garrison commanded by Warsmith Andraaz who oversaw the Janissaries and Mamelukes -- mortal slave soldiers that were utilised to enforce Medrengard's will upon the slave labourers. However, the Iron Warriors' iron grip upon the planet was lost sometime in the 41st Millennium when it was invaded by Ork Warboss Biglug and his WAAAGH!. This invasion came to be known as the Siege of Castellax. When defeat seemed imminent, Warsmith Andraaz instructed his chief Dark Mechanicum Tech-priest Oriax to prepare to use a device known as the Daemonculum to teleport him directly into the path of Biglug, in order to grant him an honourable and memorable death in combat. However, unknown to the Warsmith, the Tech-priest harboured bitter feelings towards Andraaz, and conspiring to free both himself and his dark inventions from the iron grip of the Traitor Marines, he sabotaged the teleportion process. This resulted in the Warsmith's entire retinue of personal Chaos Terminator bodyguards being lost in transit while the Warsmith's own Terminator Armour mysteriously malfunctioned, shutting itself down during his showdown with Biglug. This occurred when a binary pulse was emitted from a piece of equipment that the Warboss used against Andraaz. Ironically, it was a piece of equipment given to him by Oriax. Rendered helpless, Andraaz suffered an inglorious and undignified death at the hands of the Ork Warboss. *'Warsmith Kolvax (KIA)' - Kolvax was the commander of a Grand Company based in the mighty fortress known as the Ironblood Citadel on Medrengard, a superb fortification that was the epitome of the Iron Warriors' ingenuity and engineering genius. The Ironblood Citadel was said to rival Perturabo's own citadel on Medrengard in its sheer impregnable glory. Kolvax and his warband were based on the ancient Fortress World of Forgefane during the invasion of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan. Kolvax was slain by a Trygon that he had arrogantly boasted that he would defeat in single combat. Instead, he was swallowed whole by the beast. *'Warsmith Baldarun' - Baldurun is a Warsmith of a Grand Battery of the Iron Warriors. An outcast from the Iron Warriors since his defeat at the Fortress of Ventemar, Baldarun has been seeking the means to rebuild his standing. When the Forces of Chaos overran Makenna VII, he used the share of the spoils to build up the strength of his Grand Battery. With so many machines under his command, he would eventually return to Medregard to crush those that mocked him. Abrial Shard, an infamous Chaos renegade across a dozen sectors, swore an oath of brotherhood with Warsmith Baldarun long ago on a Daemon World at the heart of the Eye of Terror. Baldarun called upon his old ally to bolster his forces upon Makenna VII, and Abrial sent a detachment of his own personal elite, known as Abrial's Claw, on the condition that Baldarun relinquished the secrets of his beloved technovirus to Shard's men. Whether they survived to return the secret to their master was another matter. *'Warsmith Madrydon Drados' - The most prolific of the Iron Warriors individuals that are present in the Screaming Vortex. Warsmith Madrydon Drados who, along with his brutal Shatter Corps, seeks to destroy the Imperium's many fortifications and fortresses throughout the nearby sectors. He believes that without such fortifications the Imperium will quickly topple beneath its own weight and laid open to the numerous marauders and forces of chaos that surround it. To Drados, such bastions are personal affronts to his own abilities that serve only to sustain the power of the decadent and corrupt weaklings who cower behind them. In addition to the numerous warriors beneath his command, Madrydon's warband also possesses a great many powerful war machines recently liberated from the nearby Spinward Front. These once noble machines now skitter and stomp beside the Warsmith's armies as blasphemous siege constructs or terrifying Daemon Engines, their pristine forms twisted beyond recognition thanks to the efforts of Warpsmith Gracix. *'Warsmith Ferrous Ironclaw' - Ferrous Ironclaw is a Warsmith of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion. He is known to be a dedicated believer in the Traitor Legions' Long War and utterly loyal to his Daemon Primarch Perturabo. Sometime during the 41st Millennium, Ironclaw and his Grand Company besieged the Imperial world of Bellum Colonia. However, just as victory was within his grasp, a large force of Imperial Fists Space Marines descended upon the beleaguered planet to fight against the Forces of Chaos. Rather than worrying about this turn of events, and the fact that these Imperial reinforcements were both formidable and had proved problematic, Ironclaw rejoiced at the prospect of once again meting out his righteous anger against his most hated enemies in glorious battle. *'Warsmith Koros' - Koros is a Warsmith of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion and is said to be a veteran of one thousand and one sieges. As such he is a master of attacking and defending every manner of citadel. He is also a veteran of the terrible ancient campaign known as the Iron Cage, and one of the Daemon Primarch Perturabo’s lieutenants, having proved himself worthy of command of one of the Iron Bastions on Medrengard, the Daemon World which is home to his Legion. Koros was dispatched to the Jericho Reach in order to oversee the fortification of numerous worlds near the Hadex Anomaly, and to lend his assistance to the Forces of Chaos in the planning of a grand counterstrike against the forces of the Imperium. What price the various factions opposing the Imperium have agreed to pay in return for the Iron Warriors’ aid is not known, but it must certainly be high. Warsmith Koros is known to be in league with the corrupted Dark Mechanicum of the Heretic Forge World of Samech, who have equipped him and his forces with numerous items of tech-heresy, some of which was undoubtedly constructed according to his own specifications. It is now suspected by several within the Watch Fortress Erioch's Chamber of Vigilance that Warsmith Koros and the Dark Mechanicum of Samech have entered into an unholy alliance, the only result of which can be the creation of a new generation of previously unseen and abominably powerful weaponry. Armed with the twisted fruits of such a dark union, the servants of the Ruinous Powers might finally be able to break the deadlock that has befallen the Acheros Salient of the Achilus Crusade, and begin to push the lapdogs of the Corpse Emperor back to the Well of Night, finally expelling them from the Jericho Reach. *'Warsmith Shon'tu' - Shon'tu was an infamous Warsmith of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion and later Chaos Lord of the Iron Warriors warband called the Sons of the Forge. He continually plagued the veteran First Captain Darnath Lysander of the Imperial Fists Chapter over many centuries. Shon'tu was present during the Siege of Terra and like most within the Iron Warriors, has swore an eternal hatred for their bitter rivals, the Imperial Fists. It was in 585.M40 that the Imperial Fists 2nd Company, under the command of the newly promoted Captain Lysander, deployed to break the Siege of Haddrake Tor, a planet in the merciless grasp of Warsmith Shon'tu. Having secured the high ground, Lysander's strike force set up teleport homers to summon the Terminators of the 1st Company into the thick of the fighting. However, things went awry and many of the Terminators materialised over deep chasms, or else in solid rock, including Kleitus, Captain of the 1st Company. Before dying of his grievous wounds, he thrust his Thunder Hammer, the Fist of Dorn, into Lysander's hands, and bade him seek vengeance through victory. This Lysander did, leading the survivors of the 1st Company alongside his own to shatter the Iron Warriors stronghold. Shon'tu fled from the planet in defeat, but he had left a mystery in his wake. Survivors spoke of how the Warsmith had concerned himself little with the despoliation of their world, and had instead buried himself in a search through its millennia-old archives. Unfortunately, there was no way to know what Shon'tu had been searching for, as he had destroyed the archives before making his escape. As the 40th Millennium drew to a close, the Strike Cruiser Shield of Valour was lost the to the Warp. All hands, Lysander amongst them, were lost alongside, with slender hope for their return. Cast far off course by the whimsy of the Warp, they were flung forward through the centuries and far across the galaxy. When the Shield of Valour finally emerged into realspace, it did so in the fading years of the 41st Millennium and in the orbit of Malodrax -– an Iron Warriors fortress on the Eye of Terror's fringe. Swiftly disabled by the world’s formidable defences, the Strike Cruiser was boarded, and a handful of survivors -– Lysander amongst them -– taken as prisoners. Lysandor's captor was none other than Warmsith Shon'tu, who brutally tortured the stalwart Imperial Fist over many solar weeks. Though burdened by grievous harms, the captain tore free of his bondage scant weeks after his capture. Bereft of arms and armour, he wrought a storm of destruction on Malodrax's capital, seized control of a shuttle, and escaped with two of his Battle-Brothers. Lysander swore eternal vengeance upon the hated Warsmith. Reinstated as Captain of the 1st Company, Lysander's first act of command was to lead the Imperial Fists to Maldorax in 966.M41, to scour the Iron Warriors from the planet. But once again, Shon'tu eluded Lysander's grasp and made good his escape. Next, in 969.M41, Lysander led three companies to liberate the planet of Taladorn from the Sons of the Forge and his old nemesis, Warsmith Shon'tu. The captain proved too proud to accept aid from the Ultramarines and Blood Angels, and his actions lead to unnecessary casualties for the Imperial Fists. Captain Vogen was killed, and his 3rd Company badly ravaged before Captain Cato Sicarius' Ultramarines overrode Lysander's objections and intervened. Taladorn was freed, but Warsmith Shon'tu escaped once again. In 971.M41, learning that Shon'tu had been responsible for an earlier Tyranid incursion and the Ork predations on the Magor Rift, Chapter Master Hagan ordered the Phalanx to Malodrax to end the Warsmith's threat once and for all. While most of the Chapter assailed Shon'tu's planetside strongholds, Captain Tor Garadon of the Imperial Fists 3rd Company, alongside Cato Sicarius' Ultramarines and Erasmus Tycho's Blood Angels, conducted a boarding action of the recently reclaimed leviathan war barque Tamunash. Together, the boarding parties managed to destroy enough critical systems for Phalanx to gain the upper hand. As the Tamunash began to break apart, Garadon was defeated by Shon'tu, but Lysander teleported aboard Tamunash's command deck and gravely wounded the Warsmith. The Space Marines escaped by Thunderhawk gunship, and the dying Tamunash vanished into the Warp, taking Shon'tu with it. *'Warsmith Toramino' - Toramino was a Warsmith of the Iron Warriors and the leader of the Stor-Bezashk, the IV Legion's masters of ordnance and siege breaking during the era of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. By the 41st Millennium, he had become one of the Iron Warriors' most powerful surviving Warsmiths. He was the ruler of an ancient and mighty fortress on the Iron Warriors' daemonic homeworld of Medrengard. When the Warsmith Honsou was successful in obtaining a large stock of gene-seed from the hated Imperial Fists on the world of Hydra Cordatus, Toramino and his Grand Company wanted their promised share of the precious genetic material required to swell their numbers. When Honsou reneged on the deal and kept all of the gene-seed for his own Grand Company, Toramino declared war against his wayward comrade. Toramino and his fellow Warsmith Berrosus brought their armies to lay siege to Honsous's fortress of Khalan-Ghol. Toramino allowed the more aggressive Berrosus and his Grand Company to take the brunt of the fighting. Berrosus' army breached the walls of Khalan-Ghol and the Chaos Dreadnought Warsmith nearly succeeded in killing Honsou. But Honsou's daemonic life-ward breeched Berrosus' Dreadnought carapace and Honsou proceeded to slay Berrosus' vulnerable organic components. Toramino then decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and fled for his life. But civil war continued to engulf Medrengard. sketch of Warsmith Khr Vhalen.]] *'Warsmith Khr Vhalen' - Warsmith of the Iron Warriors 77th Grand Battalion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, Khr Vhalen was a name of relative obscurity before the events of the Great Betrayal was to thrust upon him the mantle of greatness. He was neither Terran nor Olympian by birth, having been recruited as an adolescent from the formerly xenos-enslaved world of Meru at the edge of the Yetzirah Abyss. Initiated into the 77th Grand Battalion, he fought his way up through its ranks by dint of excellence and sheer bloody will to survive, gaining the epithet of "Shatterblade" after fighting through a nine-hour battle with the broken remains of a Xenarch sabre impaled through his chest. The 77th, like a number of Iron Warriors detachments dispersed across the Imperium and all but forgotten, had become almost completely self-sustaining by the end of the Great Crusade, and when the Horus Heresy came, he and his forces were utterly ignorant of their Legion's betrayal of the Emperor. At the First Battle of Paramar, he and his Legionaries would take bitter pride in their stubborn loyalty to the Great Crusade as brother turned against brother. *'Warsmith Zhorisch' - Zhorisch is an ancient master of scientific and technical pursuits as well as a cunning practitioner of the art and science of siege warfare. Warsmith Zhorisch was a member of the original Iron Warriors Legion raised up by Perturabo, and he was initially a pre-cursor of the modern Techmarine, a highly trained fighting engineer. Born and raised on the Iron Warriors’ homeworld of Olympia, young Zhorisch was chosen for Iron Warriors Legion service and sent for training on Mars. While never outstanding as either a warrior or Enginseer, during the Great Crusade he proved himself competent enough and showed a dogged perseverance and real gift for leadership. He served with distinction, rose through the ranks, and was wholly dedicated to his beloved Primarch. As the IV Legion slowly fell into bitterness and treason, he gleefully followed his leaders into rebellion against the Emperor. Zhorisch saw action at many of the bloodiest battles during the Horus Heresy. He patched up IV Legion heavy armour after the Drop Site Massacre, and smashed Loyalist fortifications on Yarant and Vanaheim. He fought the Imperial Fists in the killing trenches of the Iron Cage with distinction, proving to be a persistent and implacable foe. Over the millennia following the Horus Heresy, he rose in power with guile and cunning, eventually reaching the rank of Warsmith and leading his own Chaos Space Marine warband. As a Warsmith, he developed his well-known lust for hidden knowledge, leading many a campaign of terror against unsuspecting Imperial worlds in pursuit of secrets both academic and technological. When he was given the chance to take the Obsidian Forge at Imbru, located in the Jericho Reach, and loot what he believed to be a treasure trove of Imperial secrets, he immediately accepted the task. In the aftermath of his invasion, he found all that he was looking for and more. Not only did he have the entirety of an Imperial forge to sift through, but it was a forge with a curious secret, one of the ancient Chaos xenos artefacts known as the Javar Gates. Now, after centuries of study and experimentation, the Javar Gate has come to life, much to the delight of the Warsmith. Sources *''Black Crusade: Tome of Decay'' (RPG), pg. 30 *''Deathwatch: Rising Tempest'' (RPG), pg. 86 *''Sentinels of Terra - A Codex: Space Marine Supplement'', pp. 10-11, 23, 25, 28, 31, 63-65, 67-69, 72-73, 76, 78-82, 172-173 *''The Horus Heresy - Book Three: Extermination'', by Alan Bligh, pp. 22, 24, 30, 116, 255 *''Warhammer 40,000: Apocalypse'' (4th Edition), pg. 171 *''Age of Darkness'' (Anthology), "The Iron Within" (Short Story) by Rob Sanders *''Shadows of Treachery'' (Anthology) edited by Christian Dunn and Nick Kyme, "The Crimson Fist" by John French *''Angel Exterminatus'' (Novel) by Graham McNeill *''Storm of Iron'' (Novel) by Graham McNeill *''Dead Sky, Black Sun'' (Novel) by Graham McNeill *''Deathwatch: First Founding (RPG), pg. 94 *''Treacheries of the Space Marines, "The Long War" (Short Story) by Andy Hoare es:Herrero de Guerra Category:W Category:Chaos Category:Chaos Space Marines Category:Chaos Space Marine Legions Category:Iron Warriors Category:Titles